Luke Syson is an English
museum curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
and
art historian
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...
. Since 2019, he has been the director of the
Fitzwilliam Museum
The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th V ...
at the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, prior to which he held positions at the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docu ...
(1991–2002), the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and ...
(2002–2003), the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director of ...
(2003–2012) and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the List of largest art museums, largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. ...
(2015–2019). In 2011 he curated the acclaimed
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...
exhibition at the National Gallery: ''Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan'', which included his pivotal role in the controversial authentication by the National Gallery of da Vinci's ''
Salvator Mundi''.
[
]
Education and early career
Syson received a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
from the Courtauld Institute of Art
The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist col ...
, University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...
and would continue studying there for 3 years in the PhD program; his focus was on the 15th-century royal portraiture of Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...
, Ferrara
Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stre ...
, and Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Euro ...
. His first professional positions was as the curator of medals at the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docu ...
from 1991 to 2002. Towards the end of his tenure, he served as co-curater for the ''Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court'' exhibition in 2001 and co-created a new permanent gallery: "Enlightenment: Discovering the World in the Eighteenth Century", which opened in 2003. From 2002 to 2003 he subsequently served as a senior curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and ...
, where had a leading role in creating the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries.
National Gallery
He joined the National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director of ...
in 2003, where he was the head of research and curator of Italian Paintings before 1500. At the National Gallery, Syson led a successful effort in obtaining Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...
's ''Madonna of the Pinks
The ''Madonna of the Pinks'' (c. 1506 – 1507, it, La Madonna dei garofani) is an early devotional painting usually attributed to Italian Renaissance master Raphael. It is painted in oils on fruitwood and now hangs in the National Gallery, Lon ...
''. Syson was the curator of the ''Renaissance Siena: Art for a City'' exhibition in 2007.
In 2011, Syson was the head curator for the National Gallery's ''Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan'' exhibition, which was a major success. The exhibition centered around works from Leonardo's first Milanese period (), featuring an unprecedented amount of major works by Leonardo in one location, including the '' Portrait of a Musician'', the ''Lady with an Ermine
The ''Lady with an Ermine'' ; pl, Dama z gronostajem). It is sometimes known as the ''Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani'', the ''Portrait of an Unknown Woman'', the ''Lady with a Ferret'', or the ''Lady with a Marten''., group=n is a portrait paint ...
'', '' La Belle Ferronnière'', '' Madonna Litta'' , '' Saint Jerome in the Wilderness'', '' Salvator Mundi'' and both the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the '' Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central ...
and London versions of the ''Virgin of the Rocks
The ''Virgin of the Rocks'' ( it, Vergine delle rocce), sometimes the ''Madonna of the Rocks'', is the name of two paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, of the same subject, with a composition which is identical except fo ...
''.
Through the Leonardo exhibition and efforts prior, Syson was pivotal in the full authentication of ''Salvator Mundi'' to Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...
(i.e. an "autograph work"), having five Leonardo experts inspect the painting at the museum. Author Ben Lewis later suggested in ''The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World's Most Expensive Painting'' that Syson had overstated the degree of agreement among the experts, with Carmen C. Bambach expressing skepticism after the museum announced the attribution. In the 2021 documentary '' The Lost Leonardo'', one of the other experts invited by Syson, Maria Teresa Fiorio, denied that she had ever authenticated the painting, saying: "Nobody asked me a formal opinion about this painting".
In 2019, ''The Art Newspaper
''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments ...
'' reported that it was "surprising that Syson's entry does not at least allude to the suggestion by other scholars that parts of the picture may have been painted by assistants, even if he went on to dismiss this idea". In November 2021, the Prado
The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from th ...
in Spain formally downgraded the attribution of the painting in their da Vinci exhibition catalog from "by Leonardo" to "attributed works, workshop of authorized and supervised by Leonardo". The curator of the Louvre's 2019–20 da Vinci exhibition, Vincent Delieuvin, wrote in the Prado catalog that the painting had "details of surprisingly poor quality", and that "It is to be hoped that a future permanent display of the work will allow it to be reanalysed with greater objectivity".
Later career
He became the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Chairman of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the List of largest art museums, largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. ...
(MET) in 2012. The same year he curated ''Plain or Fancy? Restraint and Exuberance in the Decorative Arts''. While at the MET he led the $22 million renovation of the museum's British Galleries. In 2015, Syson was a candidate for the director of the National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director of ...
; the position later went to Gabriele Finaldi.
Syson became the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum
The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th V ...
in 2019, replacing Tim Knox
Timothy Aidan John Knox, (born 9 August 1962) is a British art historian and museum director. Since March 2018, he has been Director of the Royal Collection, the private art collection of the British Royal Family. The Royal Collection, held in ...
.
Exhibitions
*''Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court'' at the National Gallery, London (2001)
*''Renaissance Siena: Art for a City'' at the National Gallery, London (2007)
*''Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan'' at the National Gallery, London (2011)
*''Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body'' at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2018)
Selected publications
*
*
* via London, England: National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director of ...
*
*
See also
*'' The Lost Leonardo'', a 2021 film that features Luke Syson
Notes
References
Further reading
*
* Syson's Ted Talk
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sa ...
"How I learned to stop worry and love 'useless art'"
(January 16, 2014)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Syson, Luke
English art historians
Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art
Leonardo da Vinci scholars
Living people
Date of birth missing (living people)
Directors of museums in the United Kingdom
Year of birth missing (living people)
People associated with the Fitzwilliam Museum